I have had a string of random injuries and have missed the last 3 bow seasons. Even the past years gun seasons have been purely for meat and not pleasure. This season I have been able to get out with my rifle and enjoy the woods. I had no luck at all in our early Muzz season as the temps and winds were high.

Last week Iowa's shotgun season opened to a warm start. We finally had a cool front roll in during the second week and my luck changed. I hunt shotgun season with my trad BP rifle as allowed by Iowa law. On Saturday night I was sitting in an old pop up blind that had lost it's roof during a snowstorm. We decided to just leave it out in the timber seeing that it would fall to bits if we untied it from the trees holding it up. After two season, the deer think nothing of it. I like to grunt with about 15 minutes of light left to see if anything will come in last minute. That night I had two come in on the grunt and start sparring 30 yards upwind from my blind. They were in a heavy treed area that only gave me one clear shooting lane. Another hunter's shot rang out to the north and the bucks stopped sparring. This guy turned around and stepped into my lane. My 50 cal CVA Bobcat refit into a custom Lange wood stock sent the cap and ball into the heart and one lung. He did not make it 20 feet.

In full disclosure I was beyond heartbroken when I found the buck. He had been sparring with a massive mature 12 point. When I took the shot I believed I had taken the 12. With the trees blocking all but my shot, I could not see the rack. In the pure excitement of being blessed with the opportunity to watch two bucks spar 30 yards from me, I did not notice I was sending my capped ball into a smaller body. He is a beautiful animal and will provide many meals for my family. I just know the potential this guy had if he lived another year. Oh well. Now it is time to get the canner out and get to work as I have a doe tag to fill by week's end.

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"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity" John Muir